Category Archives: Newsletter

Reflecting on TMC and other stuff







Reflecting on TMC and other stuff



Included this week: A link to the Global Math webinar archive, some blogs posts you might have missed, and another problem of the week.  

Edited by David Wees (sorry it’s late!).

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This Month at Global Math:  No Global Math!

It’s summer vacation for webinars at Global Math. We’ll be back in August. 

We’re sad too! There’s never been a better time to check out a recording of a past presentation. Check them all out here!

His Session Was Brill!

@AlexOverwijk repeated his 2014 #tmc session this year which pleased participants such as @gfletchy who tweeted:

This 2014 blog post outlines the use of white-boarding, which I believe takes the technique to the next level.  Often times, we see students within classrooms using small whiteboards only visible to those sitting near.  Overwijk discusses the impact of the whiteboards being posted on the walls around the room.  Students work in small groups on a really good task, which opens the opportunity for discussion and makes thoughts of those in the room visible to everyone.  This is a part of the “big wheel”.

Written by Jenise Sexton (@MrsJeniseSexton)

Reflecting on Twitter Math Camp

When I started tweeting within the MTBoS, I didn’t realize that I was signing up to be a part of a cult (link here).  That is, a Community United in Learning Together. Twitter Math Camp reaffirmed that MTBoS is more that just a group of people who tweet and blog about teaching math, it’s so much more than that.

As a first time attendee of the TMC I was humbled and inspired. It was an environment of sharing, caring, and uplifting what we do as educators every single day. Fawn Nguyen brought down the house with her powerful reminders of what is important: our relationship with our admin, students, parents, and colleagues. She reminded is that “Bad teaching is not knowing that what you’re doing can be better” –(@fawnpnguyen) This was a place where important discussions, conversations, and history was being written!  

Referring to the merger of NCTM and The Math Forum, Elizabeth (@cheesemonkeysf) said, “Five years ago, we were a positive but isolated group of individuals connected by Twitter and by our math teaching blogs. Today, our little conference was the platform for an important piece of news in the math education world.”  She goes on to say that MTBoS is a movement “committed to embodying a better and more sustainable set of principles in our teaching practice and in our professional development.”

I joined Twitter and MTBoS without realizing any of that. I was just looking for better resources to survive my first year of teaching. I’ve survived it and gotten so much more beyond that! 

Make sure to read the rest of Elizabeth’s article here. While the TMC15 archive is being built,  go ahead and enjoy the “Party at TMC song“.

Written by Sahar Khatri (@KhatriMath)

Problem of the Week

Without counting all of the triangles or using paper and pencil, how many small shaded triangles are in the above picture?

Pay attention to what you noticed about the shape that helped you figure it out. Full activity resources here. Share your strategies on Twitter.

Written by David Wees (@davidwees)



It’s MATH CAMP TIME!







It’s MATH CAMP TIME!



Included this week: This week’s Global Math webinar details, some blogs posts you might have missed.  Edited by Megan Schmidt

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This Month at Global Math:  No Global Math!

It’s summer vacation for webinars at Global Math. We’ll be back in August. 

We’re sad too! There’s never been a better time to check out a recording of a past presentation. Check them all out here!

PCMI – Recap

Have you been following along with #PCMIsummer? You can catch up on all of the math, fun, and collaboration that happened in Utah by checking out the hashtag. Also, be sure to check out Ashli Black’s details on a Google Hangout with Dylan William.
Wendy Menard did some fantastic blogging about her experience. Dylan Kane did as well. Don’t miss these great posts along with all of the twitter fun.

Twitter Math Camp is finally here!
At long last, Twitter Math Camp 2015 will commence on Thursday at Harvey Mudd College.  Follow along with #TMC15 to gather resources, read recaps of speakers and join in on the fun.  Also, be sure to check the TMC Wiki page for more links to resources.  



Summer Water Cooler Conversations

Summer Water Cooler Conversations

Included this week: This week’s Global Math webinar details, some blogs posts you might have missed.  Edited by Ashli Black.
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This Month at Global Math:  No Global Math!

It’s summer vacation for webinars at Global Math. We’ll be back in August.  We’re sad too! There’s never been a better time to check out a recording of a past presentation. Check them all out here!

Read, Listen, do some Math

Now that Dan Meyer has finished grad school (Congrats!) he’s back to pushing the #MTBoS to think more deeply about areas of our practice that we may have taken for granted in the past.  

The first is a new series called “If math is the aspirin, then how do you create the headache?” He’s already gotten pretty deep into it, so I would catch up with these three posts (Factoring Trinomials, Exponent Rules, Functions) before the twitter teachers at the water cooler are talking about what happened in the last post and you have to walk away bashfully because you haven’t even read the first one!

Also this past week Dan hit us with this doozy…

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Why do you use the teacher’s edition (if you do)? What are the positives? What are the negatives? Are there differences between elementary, middle school, and high school teacher’s editions? Are blogs the new, better version of teacher’s editions? Are teachers now writing their own teacher’s editions more frequently than in the past or has the internet made it easier to share these things? So many questions, only one Dan.  Thanks and welcome back!

by Andrew Gael (@bkdidact)

Game Changer

At one time, basketball was extremely boring. Literally, almost no one cared. What changed basketball to the fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat, nail-biting spectacle it is today? The 24-second shot clock. My favorite podcast, 99% Invisible, tells the story behind this accomplishment in the episode aptly titled, Game Changer.

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Guess what? All it took was some simple math.

Ever since listening to the episode, I’ve been interested in sharing it with students, thinking “how would I design (more importantly launch) a lesson to explore the math in Game Changer?”

How would you design (or launch) a lesson to explore the math in Game Changer?

Hit me up on Twitter @mr_stadel. You have 24 seconds.

Listen to the episode (only 13 minutes).
by Andrew Stadel (@mr_stadel)
Park City Mathematics Institute – Teacher Leadership Program

Hello from Utah! The picture above was taken at 8:30 at night during the last presentation of a Teacher Sharing Session. We’d all been going since 8:15 that morning, but no one wanted to miss out on learning what fellow teachers were up to. As much as I enjoy reading blog posts, getting to see them live is extra awesome. Most days here are not that long with ‘official’ events, but conversations about teaching and mathematics often last long into the evening as folks head out to dinner, play volleyball, hit up the mini golf course, or relax in the evening Utah air. Twitter Math Camp is the closest I can come to describing the camaraderie that develops at PCMI along with lifelong partners-in-crime to chat math teaching with from all over the country. For those interested in seeing the math we engage with or the articles, slide decks, and discussions we have check out the Math Content Class and the Reflecting on Practice Class here. The theme for Reflecting on Practice this year is Formative Assessment and there are many great reads to think about. I especially like the posters that were created yesterday. Good reminders for everyone. by Ashli Black (@mythagon)

Problem Set of the Week
Looking for some math to noodle over? Check out the selection from the Pizza & Problem Solving night here at PCMI along with some photos from the event.

Is Summer Break Really a Break?





Is Summer Break Really a Break?



Included this week: This week’s Global Math webinar details, some blogs posts you might have missed.  Edited by Special Guest Editor Michael Pershan

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This Month at Global Math:  No Global Math!

It’s summer vacation for webinars at Global Math. We’ll be back in August. 

We’re sad too! There’s never been a better time to check out a recording of a past presentation. Check them all out here!

Last week’s recording of Hannah Schuchhardt’s “What Makes Problems Complex?” can be viewed here.  

Blogs! Blogs for Sale! 50 Cents a Blog!

You’re Awesome and Don’t you Forget It.

 
When I first joined twitter and then got introduced to #mtbos, my first reaction was “woah” at the massive amount of tweets and people in the community. It took a while to get over the feeling of being overwhelmed every time I opened my twitter feed. I admit that there have been many times where I hesitated to press “submit”. Was I about to say something “wrong”? Was I teaching a way that was incorrect? 
 

Meg Craig’s “Gentle Reminder” resonated with the feeling of hesitation I’ve had and was also very encouraging.  She reminds us that as teachers, assume that everyone has the best of intentions and has the best interest of their students in mind (Why else would we be spending a ridiculous amount of hours on edchats, un-conferences, planning outside of “hours”?)

She states, “just because something won’t work for you doesn’t mean it doesn’t work for someone else.” That goes for lecturing, using Khan Academy (gasp! NOT), giving students notes, and other “don’ts” you may have on your list. Jane Taylor, in the comments, sums it up “We are so often maligned or misunderstood by those outside our profession that we certainly don’t need to be maligning and discouraging each other.” You can and should do what is best for you and YOUR students. So your tweets and blogs should represent the best of you and the interest of your students because what is right and wrong isn’t clear cut.  Above all else, you are awesome, inspiring, and don’t you forget it! 

by Sahar Khatri (@KhatriMath)

I’m already looking forward to September! Well, you know, sort of. This week, a tweet by William Emeny (@Maths_Master) caught my eye. It linked to his post from a year ago, about using John Hattie’s Visible Learning methods in his math class. Many of the ideas he describes took me back to a year ago, when I happened to be reading, re-reading, and making notes on Dylan William’s brilliant book “Embedded Formative Assessment”.  Inspired by Wiliam’s book, I attended Nik Doran’s TMC14 session on Hinge Questions, one of the many powerful tools described in EFA. I began the 2014-15 school year with the best of intentions to put these new ideas into practice. Then, as usual, once school started, the year got away from me and I did pretty much nothing new in the way of using formative assessment to guide and improve my teaching.  Having read Emeny’s post, which includes a beautiful set of assessments that empower students to track their own learning, I am newly inspired for September, even though summer vacation has barely begun!

by Audrey McLaren (@a_mcsquared)

Perfect Time to Reflect

As some research shows, articulated within Paul Bruno’s post “Teachers Definitely Get the Summers Off,” many teachers are capitalizing on having some free time. Other teachers are participating in professional learning sessions being offered by their districts or state department of education. No matter what you find yourself doing during the months of June through August, I hope you take the time to reflect. 

 
In Joe Schwartz’s recent post “Learning to Fish,” he gives us all a peek into his thoughts about his school year. For me, this post is encouragement to take time to reflect upon the successes, game changing opportunities and failures of my year. It’s a wonderful platform from which to jump at the start of the next year. In order for ideas to be sustainable, reflection must be done to identify what things can be evolved into more impactful opportunities. 
 
by Jenise Sexton (@MrsJeniseSexton)

Problem of the Week

Source: the Park City Math Institute. They’re great. Check it out. (-MP)



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Conference Bonanza!





Conference Bonanza!



Included this week: This week’s Global Math webinar details, some blogs posts you might have missed.  Edited by Megan Schmidt

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This Week at Global Math:  What Makes Problems Complex?

Presented by Hannah Schuchhardt



Helping students learn how to problem solve is a problem in itself. In this session we’ll look at some different strategies to help students identify what makes problems or tasks more complex than others’ with the goal that this helps them unpack the problem solving process. We’ll discuss partner or group activities and discussion prompts that help students identify complex tasks and show their thinking.
Sign Up Here.

Last week’s recording of My Favorites can be viewed here.  

Cool Bloggies

Meg Craig wrote a great post to remind us it’s ok for us to approach classroom issues differently.  It’s probably not productive for us to constantly spew our dissent on twitter.   http://www.megcraig.org/?p=703
 

If you’re thinking about your math department’s curriculum, Henri Picciotto just finished his third post in a series about big picture curriclum planning. The most recent installment, Themed Courses?, was inspired by a twitter discussion around ‘themed’ vs. ‘hodgepoge’ curriculum. While on one hand high school trigonometry classes lack a central theme, this may be comfortable for students, as most 4th grade classes also cover a wide array of topics. Picciotto states that the decision around these things should be individualized, “taking into account the specifics of one’s school, such as school culture, schedule, and student preparation.” He lays out some of the most important things to consider and he also provides the curriculum map that he created for his high school as an example. It’s worth the read, as are the previous posts in the series, Pruning the Curriculum and Mapping out a Course.

 
If you just want to do some math, jump into the PCMI ‘e-table.’ Do some of the same math that they are working on at the 2015 Park City Math Institute and talk with other educators via google each evening. The math problems will unfold over time but it looks like there will be a focus on triangles and Geogebra. If you’re interested in the happenings in Utah, follow along with the hashtag #pcmisummer!

Hashtag PD #ConferenceChat

Tons of tweeps are traveling the globe, soaking up strategies from fellow educators, and sharing gems on twitter for all of us to enjoy!  



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Summer Engagement





This Week at Global Math – 06/23/2015



Included this week: This week’s Global Math webinar details, some things to check out from the interwebs that you might have missed.  Edited by Ashli Black.

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This Week at Global Math: 

My Favorites
 

At Global Math tonight we have math teachers share their favorite thing in the online world this week.

Speakers: 

Brooke Powers (@LBrookePowers) 

Matt Enlow (@CmonMattTHINK) 

Dylan Kane (@math8_teacher) 

Hedge (@approx_normal) 

Jessica Bogie (@algebrainiac1)

Presented by: Jessica Bogie (@algebrainiac1).

Sign up here.

Last week on Global Math we heard from The Shadow Con crew with some follow up thoughts from Boston and an inside look at how it came together.  View the recording here.

Summer engagement

#bookchat

As the school year closes many teachers head for the hills (or the beach or the lake or abroad).  Some, however, wonder what they can do over the summer break to maintain their high level of professional inquiry.  If you are the latter, then may I suggest one of the many twitter book club chats happening over the summer.

 

The first is centered around the book Intentional Talk by Elham Kazemi and Allison Hintz.  Both authors are active on twitter and are heavily involved in the book club chat.  This chat is run by Dylan Kane and Bridget Dunbar.  The chat is being run slow chat style on the hashtag #intenttalk.  Below is a more detailed schedule.  

 

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Another twitter book club going on right now is for the book Mindsets in the Classroom by Mary Cay Ricci.  It is led by Laurie B-Worthington and is every Tuesday at 8pm EST on the hashtag #msitcbc.  Justin Aion is ready for twitter book clubs this summer! Are you?

written by Andrew Gael (@bkdidact)

Tell Me Something About the Problem

 

There are so many great blogs out there… here are two I’m determined to get caught up on reading this summer. The fact that they’re both newer blogs makes this an attainable goal.

 

Uw2ILI-v_400x400.jpeg The amazing Marilyn Burns has been blogging since January. I saw Marilyn present a few years ago and wish I had her as a math teacher when I was in school. Like so many of us, she states in her first post that she’s “still on the journey of becoming a good math teacher.”

*Bonus points: follow Marilyn on Twitter too.

u3_wAozZ_400x400.jpeg Michael Pershan has been throwing down some new beats over at Problem Problems where it’s All About Problem Solving. I highly doubt he’s only going to post 99.

written by Andrew Stadel (@mr_stadel)

 

With summer upon us comes three of the best weeks of math PD out there: The Park City Mathematics Institute. It’s three weeks of doing math, thinking deeply about teaching, and creating things that will benefit the teaching community.
For those interested in learning more about PCMI, you can check out an info site here and also follow along with the morning math problems, check out what the Reflection on Practice session is thinking and reading, or follow the PCMI hashtag, #pcmisummer. A lot of those links are pretty blank for now since PCMI starts on June 29th, but to see what it will look like click here to see the class notes from 2014.

written by Ashli Black (@mythagon)

 


Summer Math Photo Challenge

 

Summer Math Photo Challenge



 

 

 

Included this week: This week’s Global Math webinar details, some blogs posts you might have missed.  Edited by Megan Schmidt
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This Week at Global Math:  Shadow Con

Presented by Jonathan Claydon and Michael Pershan

Shadow Con was a teacher-led mini conference hosted during the twilight hours of the annual conference of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in Boston, MA. While the impact of many conference sessions ends when a participant leaves the room, Shadow Con aims for an enduring conference experience.

During this webinar, we will hear about the development, planning, and implementation of Shadow Con 2015. We will also hear from five of the Shadow Con presenters about their experience and look towards the future!

Sign Up Here.
Last week’s recording on Spiraling Deeper with Activity Based Learning in Mathematics can be viewed here.

#MTBoS Summer Math Photo Challenge

The #mathphoto15 challenge is happening on Twitter this summer, hosted by an enthusiastic international cadre of #MTBoS members. The challenge runs June through most of August and is being broadcast in English, French and Spanish.

The premise is simple, the results are inspiring.  Photos that illustrate each week’s mathematical theme are posted to Twitter using the #mathphoto15 hashtag and can also be viewed in the associated Flickr photo stream.  We are heading into our third week of the challenge focusing on tessellations, wallpaper groups and frieze patterns (#tiles).  Our Week 4 challenge is the enigmatic prompt of “three,” suggested by the inimitable Christopher Danielson. We hope you (and your kids and/or your students) will ponder the weeks’ challenges throughout the summer, keep your cameras nearby, and add to our joyful and growing collection of inspiring mathematical images!

Why take photos of math ideas in the everyday world? Even if something seems “obvious” we can still deepen our understanding of a mathematical object or idea by comparing it against non-examples or almost-but-not-quite examples outside of more familiar mathematical contexts.

Consider our Week 1 theme of arrays. Is the image below, posted by @ms_hansel, an array? What properties are you focusing on when you give your answer?

Or how about this image from @julietaSpace? Is this an array?

Or what about this?

What are the essential properties needed to define an array? Can an array be circular? What is the difference between a rectangular and a circular array? Does the shape change the nature of the information we can find there?

In addition to viewing the photos we are also having interesting and useful conversations about the images. And, in a wonderful turn of events, moving examples (videos, gifs and other animations) are being added into them mix to help us further deepen our understanding and conceptualization of these foundational mathematical ideas.

We hope you will join in the fun and conversation this summer. The challenge has already been inspirational to many, and the Flickr photo stream has already been useful for educators who were still in school during the first half of June.  Check out the weekly challenges on the Summer Photo Challenge Website and then start playing! We can’t wait to see what you find!

Written By Malke Rosenfeld (@mathinyourfeet)

Sahar Khatri (@KhatriMath) adds some other tips on how to participate:

  • Identify the week’s theme and tag by checking out this page. The challenge is currently running it’s third week with #tessellations. Here is a quick cheat sheet for the entire summer.
  • Take a picture and share it on twitter using #mathphoto15

Many schools across the country are on their summer breaks, but I have a few more weeks left with my students so this is also a great engaging opportunity to get my students involved. Since the challenge continues through August, I am excited to see how many of my students continue during the summer. Don’t forget to share this with that friend…you know the one who always takes pictures of everything. Challenge them to find curves, lines, tessellations, symmetry, and so on.

Just in Time for Summer

Common Core Math has been a source of debate for educators, politicians and parents for several years now.  The newly elected superintendent has weighed in on what he has deemed “funny math methods”.  Disregarding the implementation of continuous quality professional development, Superintendent Woods has opted to encourage teachers to abandon the language of the standards for methods proven to not work for all students.

In his most recent post, @gfletchy incorporated research from NCTM and Constance Kamii’s 1998 article The Harmful Effects Of Algorithms In Grades 1-4 to support the effectiveness of the encouraging student created strategies.  He makes very sensible comments about teachers being professionals who shouldn’t have to depend on a textbook in order to teach their subject matter.  He also tackled Superintendent Woods’ correlation between homework and the standards.

Not to be outdone, @mikewiernicki further discusses the pros and cons of algorithms in his most recent post.  Coupled with examples, Wiernicki provides the clear negative effectives solely introducing the standard algorithm without having conceptual understanding.

Often, teachers are expected to implement initiatives without proper or effective professional development.  When this happens, scratching the right work for a lack of planning has the potential of being more detrimental than following through with the initial plan.  The voices of knowledgeable educators actually doing the right work are necessary for the betterment of ALL students.

Written by: Jenise Sexton (@MrsJeniseSexton)

Other Summer Projects

Inspired by Malke Rosenfeld’s Summer Math Photo Challenge, I went looking for other summer projects of a similar nature, something in which anyone can easily participate, and something involving math. I was not too successful at that, I have to admit, but I did come across two separate things which gave me an idea for a project.

First I saw @BlueCerealEduc ‘s tweet about a Summer Reading Challenge, posted by Claudia Swisher, on her blog. For the past ten years, Claudia and her friend have read a book together every summer and discussed it on their morning walks through their neigbourhood. They have even posted snapshots of favourite lines on Facebook, bringing friends and family into their circle of book heaven. This summer, they’re reading To Kill a Mockingbird, and have invited others to share in the discussion via an online reading group. Hmmm, thought me, what an easy way to bring people into a discussion – using a camera and social media. The next thing I saw was @mathymeg07‘s tweet for people doing a Twitter book study, in which she invited everyone to add their planned reading titles to a Google spreadsheet.

I know that Twitter book chats have been around for a while, but I liked Claudia’s idea of naturally bringing others into the discussion, so I will be reading one of the books on this list – the #OKMath one, and I’ll see how it goes on Facebook as well as Twitter. My hope is that, as is the case with the #mathphoto15 project, even people who aren’t math teachers might get lured into it, unaware that they are thinking and talking about math!

Written By Audrey McLaren (@a_mcsquared)

Problem of the Week
Look at this problem and try and come up with as many ways of solving this problem as you can.

(Source: June 2015, NY State Regents Exam in Algebra I)

Written By David Wees (@davidwees)